Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Brigham Health System at Massachusetts General Hospital, led one of the first studies to explore the relationship between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and artificially sweetened beverages and the incidence of liver cancer and chronic liver disease. Disease mortality. The findings were recently published in the journal JAMA.
About 65% of U.S. adults regularly consume sugary drinks. Chronic liver disease is a major source of disease and death worldwide, potentially contributing to liver cancer and liver disease-related deaths. The study found that postmenopausal women who drank sugar-sweetened beverages daily had a significantly higher risk of these liver-related outcomes compared to postmenopausal women who drank fewer beverages.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study to report an association between sugar-sweetened beverage intake and mortality from chronic liver disease,” said lead author Dr. Longgang Zhao of Briggenchanin’s Department of Network Medicine. Zhao is a postdoctoral researcher in the Qianning Division and works with senior authors Xuehong Zhang (MBBS, ScD). “Our findings, if confirmed, may inform public health strategies to reduce the risk of liver disease based on data from large and geographically diverse cohorts.”
This observational study included nearly 100000,20 postmenopausal women in a large prospective Women’s Health Initiative study. Participants reported their usual consumption of soft drinks and fruit juice drinks (excluding pure fruit juices), and then reported consumption of artificially sweetened beverages three years later. Participants had a median follow-up of more than <> years. The researchers looked at self-reported liver cancer rates and deaths from chronic liver diseases such as fibrosis, cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis, which were further validated by medical records or national death indices.
The final analysis involved a total of 98786,6 postmenopausal women. Compared to women who drank fewer than three sugar-sweetened beverages per month, 8.85% of women who drank one or more sugar-sweetened beverages per day had an 68% higher risk of liver cancer and a <>% higher risk of dying from chronic liver disease.
The authors note that the study was observational and could not infer causality and could only rely on self-reported responses regarding intake, sugar content, and outcomes. More research is needed to validate this risk association and determine why sugary drinks appear to increase the risk of liver cancer and other diseases. In addition, more research is needed to elucidate the underlying mechanisms by integrating genetic, preclinical and experimental studies, and omics data.
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